Mixed Heritage Bill Of Rights

Twitter Parties may not be the best way to have a conversation, but I certainly learned something new at the one I “attended” for biracial families. It’s called the Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage. It was written by Maria P. P. Root, a clinical psychologist, who writes about and gives speeches on multiracial families and multiracial identity.

I definitely could have used this resource in the past and will certainly use it in the future. I had planned to give readers a taste of the document. When I clicked on the link on her site, I received a note that it could only be reproduced in its entirety with the author’s name intact. So here it is …

Bill of Rights
for
People of Mixed Heritage

I HAVE THE RIGHT…
Not to justify my existence in this world.
Not to keep the races separate within me.
Not to justify my ethnic legitimacy.
Not to be responsible for people’s discomfort with
my physical or ethnic ambiguity.

I HAVE THE RIGHT…
To identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify.
To identify myself differently than how my parents identify me.
To identify myself differently than my brothers and sisters.
To identify myself differently in different situations.